La vocazione centripeta. Una divergenza ideologica tra Libanio e Temistio di fronte alla prospettiva costantinopolitana dei buleuti di Antiochia

Abstract

This research focuses attention on two figures, Themistius and Libanius, who are typical intellectuals oriented towards a prospect ready to grasp social interactions included in their literary activity. If the two men are comparable for cultural education and for their profession, nevertheless they remain quite distinct from each other for all other life choices: from 354 AD Libanius definitively settled in Antioch ‒ a year before the one in which Themistius was appointed senator at Constantinople ‒, so entering upon his career as an organic intellectual. Themistius’ and Libanius’ works are, as a matter of fact, two radically different expressions of Hellenism of the 4th century AD: faced with the various problems of actuality, the two intellectuals had almost always opposite views, as was the case with the recruitment of members for the Senate of Constantinople.